Artist's Update, 5 - 15 - 01

[OnlyOne]

Today was productive. While I was out, I finished the Only One strips up through the end of the First Flight arc. It's hard to believe that I began this storyline on the first of March! Maybe some of my readers are finding it hard to believe that I dragged on this storyline for three months...<P>Also, yesterday, whilst I lay me down to sleep, I got the perfect plot idea for the storyline after this next one. In other words, I've got Only One almost planned out through July. As a lazy bastard, it's almost painful to think of anything that far in advance.<P>Just to update you on how I'm doing, Only One's average hits per day for May stands at over 1200. I find that fantastic - I don't know how successful I expected to be, but I know some other Keenspacers who started around the same time as me aren't even getting 100. It's a great feeling to take on a big project like a webcomic, and see it succeed. Along the same note, I wish the best of luck to those low-visit Keenspacers I mentioned. Everyone deserves success. Try a new comic today!<P>I believe I've mentioned before that the First Flight is one of the plot points that has been around since the incarnation of this story - one of the things I wanted to happen and show. As it comes to a close, I feel I've accomplished something in bringing my characters out to the world, as I originally dreamed. I know many people have little characters and stories in the margins of their notes - I was perfectly happy to keep them that way for many years, but even from the beginning I knew that I eventually was going to consolidate my ideas, and present them to the world.<P>Heh...did you know that Beri's story started, more or less, as an attempt at one-upmanship? You see, Beri was originally a roleplay character on Compuserve - not a very good one, at that. I sucked in those days. But I felt that I was going to show everyone up - my character would have a backstory. Not just a backstory - a novel! And thus, The Legacy - the title of the first 'book', was created. It ended up around 65 pages. Even though I was a horrible, horrible writer at the time, it helped me define who Beri was. Suffice to say it's nothing like the Beri you know today.<P>That's also where the similarity between Beri and Barry's names come from. When I was just getting into roleplay - keep in mind I had no frickin' idea of what that meant, besides that I liked fantasy stories - I just went by Barry at first. I didn't know you needed one of these 'character' things. Then I changed my name to Beri, just to be different, and kind of developed an online persona.
It wasn't soon after that Beri took on a mind of his own. After that point, even though I realize that the names are confusing, I couldn't change it. His name was Beri.
By the way, there's a third Beri, too. Oh, no, he won't be showing up. I use the nickname 'Beri' online, as a way of seperating my online and offline personalities. So there's Barry, me, Beri, the online aspect of my personality, and Beri, the character. Is this troublesome enough yet?<P>This has been a really long update, but thanks for reading. Reply or e-mail me if you want, okay? I'm always happy to recieve your thoughts and responses.<P>------------------
- Barry
AIM:Beri Alpha
http://OnlyOne-Online.org

[OnlyOne]

For better or for worse, here. <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/5070/index.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/ ... ex.html</A>
An example of the permanence of the Internet. This webpage, which was the home of my failed IRC RPG, hasn't been updated in five years.<P>I've learned from the mistakes I made there -
1. CoGMing doesn't work well. It's too much trouble in one game.
2. You have to get your characters there. We'd be missing about half our guys per session. Not good.
3. Read the frickin' character sheets. I accidentally approved a TANK as a character, for cryin' out loud.
4. Plan. Or be good at faking it.<P>By the way, click on some of the links on that page -
Lunar IRC RPG I: Middleground
I still consider Brian Peterson, AKA Hahn, to be one of the best damn GMs I've ever met. Even though I rarely attended the actual sessions, I've never seen an RPG produce so many stories, characters, and legends within it's community.
Lunar IRC RPG VI: A Story Forgotten
Here's a lesson for the RPG club. You can have a long, long campaign that starts with characters as young, powerless whelps, have a plotline, and end with a powerful conclusion and strong warriors. Fifty-four sessions, all in a continuous plotline!<P>Montie, if you're reading this...THAT'S the kind of campaign I would die to run or be apart of.<P>Also, here <A HREF="http://www.fuzzyfur.net/nadia/Arcadia/arpgindex.htm" TARGET=_blank>http://www.fuzzyfur.net/nadia/Arcadia/arpgindex.htm</A>
Is the Arcadia IRC RPG I took apart in. You may notice the FuzzyFur URL - Nadia Hemady's project is now hosting the successful Adventurers! webcomic. I'm glad she's been successful.
Anyway, in this RPG, we did pretty well having dual casts one characters, one side good and one evil. I didn't get too into it, but it was fun.<P>Those were the days. The #PhantasyStar crew was just a great online community - and one of the only ones I've ever been apart of, and been recognized in. It was great, while it lasted...then squabble broke the Lunar Mailing List, and our houses fell into disarray. We've gone our ways.<P>------------------
- Barry
AIM:Beri Alpha
http://OnlyOne-Online.org